Episode 27: Navigating Body Image: Empowering Parents to Support Their Teens with Anastassis Spiliadis

In this insightful episode, Bettina is joined by psychotherapist Anastasis about how parents can effectively support teenagers facing body image concerns. Anastasis discusses the challenges of talking about bodies as kids grow, particularly in the teenage years in context of what is going on in the teenage brain. This can be a tricky conversation for parents to start and something many parents might avoid for fear of saying the wrong thing. There is often high sensitivity and even shame around their body for teenagers. He advocates for normalising conversations focused on acceptance rather than pressure to 'love' one's body. He encourages parents to begin tentatively and start with observations, aiming to match where the young person is in terms of their privacy and openness. Try to avoid polarisation - talking about it all the time or not at all. This will be different for individuals, depending on their profile, whether there is neurodiversity present or sensory sensitivity. He recommends parents talking about their own experience, both the pride they felt about their body as a teen and the challenges. All of this creates a supportive environment for their teenagers' body image journey.